THE Public Accounts Committee must look into the RM11 billion 5G network contract won by Ericsson, Fahmi Fadzil said today.

In a letter to the PAC last week, the Lembah Pantai MP said there may be discrepancies in the contract with the Swedish telecommunication giant that warrant an investigation. 

“I was made to understand that there is a possibility that the contract terms at the bidding stage differed from the terms in the contract signed by DNB (Digital Nasional Bhd) and Ericsson.

“The Dewan Rakyat should have knowledge of this as it involves public interest and public funds.

“As such, I urge the PAC to investigate the bidding terms of the actual contract, through a full briefing or by commencing a proceeding and calling up relevant parties as soon as possible,” Fahmi said in his letter.

In July last year, DNB signed a contract with Ericsson to design and build the 5G infrastructure for RM11 billion.

DNB has up to January spent RM544 million in costs for the network infrastructure, hardware and capital.

This is funded by the RM1.7 billion raised in loans from financial institutions.

The 5G roll-out will be implemented via a single wholesale network whereby the government would allow telecommunication companies to hold equity in DNB.

Fahmi had previously urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to investigate the contract between DNB and Ericsson on the grounds that the telco had allegedly breached pacts and had compliance issues in a deal in Iraq in 2019.

Ericsson was accused by the United States Department of Justice of breaching terms of the 2019 deal with prosecutors by failing to properly disclose misconduct and compliance failures in Iraq.

The MACC however found no reason to suspect any wrongdoing in the award of the contact.

In response to Fahmi, Ericsson in a statement said that it won the contract on merit after following the strictest standards of governance as advised and facilitated by EY Consulting. – March 28, 2022.